69. Marriage as a Sacrament
99. The Marriage of Two Baptized Persons is a Sacrament
The married state is so important that Christ raised the marriage between Catholics to the level of a sacrament: “The marriage covenant … has, between the baptized, been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament. Consequently, a valid marriage contract cannot exist between baptized persons without its being by that very fact a sacrament.”1
In Sacred Scripture, a text from St. Paul clearly shows this sacramental nature: “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church.… Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church.… ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.’ This is a great mystery [sacrament], and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church” (Eph 5:22–23, 25, 31–32).
It is not the use of the term sacrament (mysterion in the original Greek, sacramentum in the Vulgate) that makes this text relevant, since that term did not acquire its present meaning until a much later period. What really matters are the essential properties brought to light:
· Marriage between Catholics is the sign of a sacred reality: the union of Christ with the Church.
· It is a sensible sign, since the marriage contract must be manifested externally.
· It causes grace, since it is a “great mystery … in reference to Christ and the Church.” There is nothing particularly mysterious in natural marriage, so the above “mystery” seems to refer to the sacramental effect as supernatural cause of grace.
Notably important among the testimonies of the Fathers of the Church are two texts from St. Augustine and one text from St. Leo the Great.2
The Eastern churches, which broke away from Rome many centuries ago, also hold that marriage is a sacrament. This implies that the belief was widespread in the early Church, since, after their separation from Rome, these churches have not accepted any of the changes introduced in the West.
The tenderness of our Lord is truly infinite. See how gently he treats his sons. He has made marriage a holy bond, the image of the union of Christ and his Church (cf. Eph 5:32), a great sacrament on which is based the Christian family that has to be, with God’s grace, a place of peace and harmony, a school of sanctity.3
100. Institution of the Sacrament of Marriage
Christian marriage is an effective sign or sacrament of Christ’s Covenant with his Church. The motive for conjugal fidelity is God’s fidelity to his Covenant with mankind, and Christ’s fidelity to his Church.
As a sacrament, marriage was instituted by Christ. The moment of its institution is not known. Authors suggest it was either the wedding at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1–11), the abolition of the repudiation law (cf. Mt 19:6), or some unspecified time between the Resurrection and the Ascension of the Lord.
101. The Matter and Form of Marriage
The matter and form of sacramental marriage are the very same matter and form of the natural and legitimate marriage contract.
The sacrament exists the very moment the natural contract is established between baptized persons by virtue of that same contract. No other condition is required. This means that the natural contract is a sacrament, that is, it produces both sanctifying grace and sacramental grace when established between Catholics.4
Regarding the contract in itself, we can affirm the following:
· The remote matter of the contract is the persons who get married or, according to other authors, the right over their bodies for procreation.
· The proximate matter is the signs or words by which the giving of the body, or the marital right, is manifested.
· The form is the mutual acceptance of this surrender, manifested externally.
Pope Benedict XIV affirms, “The legitimate contract is both the matter and the form of the sacrament of marriage, to wit: the mutual and legitimate surrender of the bodies, manifested in words and signs that show their internal attitude, is the matter; and the mutual and legitimate acceptance of the bodies is the form.”5
102. Minister of Marriage
The ministers of marriage are the spouses themselves. The blessing of the priest is merely a sacramental.6
The presence of the priest has been necessary only since the Council of Trent. This requirement was established, together with the marriage banns, in order to curb secret or clandestine marriages. While these were true and valid marriages, they often caused great disorder.7
The local bishop, parish priest, or his legitimate delegate attends the marriage as an active and qualified witness. He asks the contracting parties to manifest externally their consent, and he receives that manifestation in the name of the Church. His presence is required by ecclesiastical law for the validity of the act, just as civil law requires the presence of a public official or notary public for the validity of some juridical acts. In a case of real need, however, it can be dispensed with.
103. Subject of Marriage
The legitimate subject of marriage is any baptized person who is not prevented by law. Impediments will be considered in the following sections.
For the lawful reception of the sacrament, one must have sanctifying grace, because marriage is a sacrament of the living—it is not meant to confer the first grace. Receiving it in mortal sin (aside from the sacrilege committed) impedes the supernatural effects of the sacrament. However, these can be revived when the subject recovers God’s grace.
104. Effects of Marriage
As a natural institution, marriage generates a perpetual and exclusive bond, and it has the blessings, demands, and characteristics that were studied in the preceding chapter.
Moreover, in a Christian marriage, the spouses are strengthened and become, as it were, “consecrated” by a particular sacrament for the duties and dignity of their state.8 The Sacrament of Marriage has the same natural effects and normal characteristics of every natural conjugal love, but it adds a new significance that both purifies and strengthens the natural union, and elevates it to the extent of making it the expression of specifically Christian virtues.9
104a) The Supernatural Effects of the Sacrament of Matrimony
The supernatural effects of the Sacrament of Marriage are as follows:
· An increase of sanctifying grace
· Sacramental grace
· The right to receive in the future all actual graces that are needed to duly fulfill the ends of marriage
This sacrament increases for the spouses the permanent source of their supernatural life, sanctifying grace; and it gives them special additional gifts, good inspirations, and seeds of grace, at the same time augmenting and perfecting their natural faculties. Thus husband and wife can have more than an abstract appreciation of all that pertains to the goals and duties of their married state; they can have an internal realization, a firm conviction, an efficacious will, and an actual accomplishment of it. Finally, this sacrament gives them the right to ask for and receive the help of actual grace as often as they need it to fulfill the duties of their state.10
105. Apostolic Celibacy
Christ is the center of all Christian life. Union with him is superior to all other family or social bonds (cf. Lk 14:26; Mk 10:28–31). From the beginning of the Church, there have been men and women who have foregone the good of marriage to be closer to Jesus (cf. Rv 14:4; 1 Cor 7:32). The act of contracting marriage is a sacrament, while deciding to live celibately for apostolic reasons is not. However, apostolic celibacy is a more excellent state than marriage. This has always been the teaching of the Church, repeated more insistently since the Protestants challenged it.11
Celibates can unite themselves to Christ with an undivided heart. They can give themselves more freely, in him and for him, to the service of God and mankind. Nothing hinders their service of his Kingdom and the work of spiritual regeneration.12 The Second Vatican Council applies these reasons to sacerdotal celibacy, but they have a wider meaning and perfectly apply to apostolic celibacy.
This applies only to the situation considered in itself. It is obvious that, in individual cases, married people can be holier than celibates. These two realities—the Sacrament of Matrimony and apostolic celibacy—come from the Lord. He gives them meaning and grants the necessary grace to live in either state according to his will (cf. Mt 19:3–12). Further, for each person, the most perfect path is always what God asks of him.
106. The Domestic Church
Christ wanted to be born into the Holy Family of Joseph and Mary. Actually, the Church is “God’s family.” From the beginning, the nucleus of the Church was generally constituted of those who became believers with their entire household (cf. Acts 18:8).
In our day, in a world that is frequently hostile to the faith, a family of believers is like a hearth radiating living faith. The Second Vatican Council called the family “the domestic Church”--Ecclesia domestica.13
Matrimony is a divine vocation that God gives to many. Married couples are to sanctify themselves in this vocation and to sanctify other souls through it. Thus:
· The home is where the spouses and children must sanctify themselves through the fulfillment of all their daily duties.
· Marital and family life should be a school of Christian life for the children, a center of apostolic activity with the other members of one’s own family and with relatives, friends, and acquaintances.
107. Jurisdiction over Marriage
The sacramental nature of Catholic marriage has some juridical consequences. As was already mentioned, because of its sacramental nature, only the Church has the power to judge and determine all that refers to the essence of Christian marriage.
This is so because in marriage between baptized persons, the marriage contract and the sacrament cannot be separated: Where there is true marriage, there is also a sacrament. Only the Church has jurisdiction over the sacraments.
This exclusive ecclesiastical jurisdiction was clearly defined by the Council of Trent against the Protestant errors.14 When they denied the sacramental nature of marriage, they also denied the jurisdiction of the Church. The words of Leo XIII are also relevant in this regard:
And let no one be misled by that distinction so highly vaunted by the supporters of the civil power who separate the nuptial contract from the sacrament, with the intention of committing the contract to the power and judgment of the civil authority, reserving to the Church the sacramental aspects. As a matter of fact, such a distinction—more truthfully a sundering—cannot be approved of, since it is certain that in Christian marriage the contract cannot be separated from the sacrament. And therefore it is impossible for the contract to be genuine and lawful, unless it is at the same time a sacrament. For Christ the Lord enhanced matrimony with the dignity of a sacrament. But matrimony is the actual contract, provided it is made according to law. A further consideration is that as a consequence matrimony is a sacrament because it is a sacred sign and produces grace, and reflects the mystical marriage of Christ with the Church. The image and likeness of this marriage are found in the bond of the perfect union that joins together a man and a woman, and this is nothing more than matrimony itself. Thus it is evident that among Christians every marriage is by its very nature and essence a sacrament. And nothing is more repugnant to the truth than to say that the sacrament is a kind of embellishment of the contract, or a property extrinsic to and flowing from it, and that the sacrament can be distinguished and separated from the contract by the will of man.15
The same doctrine is affirmed in the present Code of Canon Law: “Matrimonial cases of the baptized belong by right to the ecclesiastical judge.”16 The establishment and dispensation of impediments also belongs to the ecclesiastical authority.17
Civil authority has jurisdiction over the merely civil effects of the canonical marriage of Catholics, and only over these civil effects.18
This is logical, since the purpose of civil authority is the temporal welfare of the citizens. Some of these civil effects are the union or separation of property or the inheritance rights of spouses and children.
107a) Declaration of Nullity of a Marriage
The Church does not have the power to dissolve a valid, sacramental marriage that has been consummated. Thus, the word annulment is incorrect. The Church may only declare a marriage null and void upon investigation and evidence that the marriage did not exist from the very beginning because of some defect in the consent, deficiency in the form, or the existence of an impediment.
When a case of declaration of nullity is filed in a Church marriage court, both partners must consider their marriage valid until the contrary is declared. Only after the marriage is declared invalid are the parties free to marry again. This is not the granting a divorce, but of simply declaring the nullity, or nonexistence, of a previously presumed marriage.
A married couple may undergo disagreements and even serious quarrels. We could say that there had been a failure in that marriage. This should not be made equivalent to the non-existence of a valid marriage. A matrimonial separation (see above, number 96c) could be advisable in many of those cases.
107b) Mixed Marriages
A mixed marriage is one between a Catholic and a non-Catholic baptized person. In mixed marriages, the power of the Church indirectly extends to the non-Catholic spouse. The ecclesiastical laws apply to the Catholic party and, since marriage cannot have different effects for each of the spouses, they must apply equally to the other person.
To lawfully engage in a mixed marriage, a Catholic needs permission from the competent ecclesiastical authority. The permission is not granted unless the following conditions are met:
· The Catholic partner must declare that he or she will always remove any danger to the faith and promise that the children will be educated in the Catholic religion.
· The other partner is to be informed of these promises and obligations of the Catholic partner.
· Both partners are to be instructed about the purposes and essential properties of marriage, which cannot be excluded by either of them.19
107c) Disparity of Cults
There is disparity of cults in a marriage between a Catholic and a non-Christian. When a Catholic marries a non-Christian, neither of the parties receives the sacrament.
Obviously, the non-Christian (i.e., an unbaptized person) cannot receive it, since Baptism is the gate of all sacraments. The baptized spouse does not receive it either, since marriage has the general characteristic of causing the same effects on both parties. Further, the contracting parties are the ministers of marriage, and an unbaptized person cannot administer a sacrament to a baptized one.20
The marriage of a Catholic to an unbaptized person needs a dispensation in order to be valid. The dispensation is not granted unless the conditions mentioned above are fulfilled.21
107d) Marriage between Non-Christians
A marriage between non-Christians is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Church. However, it is subject to the just laws and impediments established by civil authority.
This does not mean that the Church’s teaching on marriage applies only to Catholics. We already said that what the Church declares belongs to natural law, and applies to all human beings: to non-Christians, because they are human beings, and to Catholics, because they are human beings as well as Catholics.
108. Preparation for Marriage
The betrothal is a bilateral or unilateral promise of marriage. It was very important in the past, but its importance to the Church has practically disappeared. At present, it is regulated only by particular laws that the episcopal conference may issue.22
Before the celebration of marriage, the absence of any impediment that prevents it must be established. This investigation is concluded by the publication of marriage banns.23
The candidates must be instructed about the obligations of spouses. Since one of these obligations is the education of their children in the faith, the pastor should, during this instruction, verify that they sufficiently know the fundamental truths of the faith. However, a couple’s refusal to undergo instruction is not a sufficient reason to deny them the sacrament.24
Catholics who have not received the Sacrament of Confirmation should receive it before marriage if no great inconvenience is involved. Since one should receive the Sacrament of Marriage in the state of grace, it is likewise recommended that they receive the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist beforehand as well.25
109. The Matrimonial Consent
Marriage is brought into being by the lawfully manifested consent of legally capable persons. Therefore, no human authority can make up for this consent.26
“Matrimonial consent is an act of the will by which a man and a woman by an irrevocable covenant mutually give and accept one another for the purpose of establishing a marriage.”27
Matrimonial consent must be true, free, and deliberate; actual (to get married here and now); mutual and simultaneous; externally and lawfully manifested (according to the requirements of ecclesiastical law); and unconditional.28
Regarding the validity of the consent, a conditional consent may make the marriage null. It is certainly null if the condition concerns the future, or if it goes against the essence of marriage and is expressly placed.29
The marriage would also be void if there is ignorance or substantial error about the essence of marriage,30 but not if the error is about its unity, indissolubility, or sacramental nature (provided the consent did not depend on that error).31 A marriage would be void also if one of the parties internally and positively excludes marriage itself or one of its essential properties or elements.32
Consent is null if there is a mistake about the identity of one of the parties (this is rare but possible), but not if the error is about a quality of the person, unless this quality was directly and principally intended. If the consent of one party is secured by deceit about an important quality of the other, the marriage is invalid.33
Grave fear imposed externally that makes marriage the only option invalidates the contract.34
110. The Form of the Celebration of Marriage
The presence of the minister of the Church (and the witnesses) visibly expresses that Matrimony is an ecclesial reality. Thus, the Church usually demands the ecclesiastical form for the celebration of marriage. The marriage of Catholics is valid only when contracted in the presence of the local bishop or parish priest (or of a priest delegated by either of them) and two other witnesses. This is so by an express disposition of the Church, which has the power over this matter. It was originally issued by the Council of Trent, and slight modifications have been introduced since then.
If delegation is granted, it must be expressly given to a specific person. A general delegation must be given in writing. A special delegation must be given only for a specific marriage. This power can be sub-delegated only in some concrete cases. A deacon is also eligible. With the authorization of the Holy See, a lay person can also be appointed if no priest or deacon is available.35
The above paragraphs describe the ordinary form of marriage. When this form is not possible, and when the parish priest or bishop is not accessible without great inconvenience, the extraordinary form is lawful and valid. In this case, only two witnesses are needed. This could happen when there is danger of death, religious persecution, scarcity of priests that would impose a delay of more than one month, etc.36
The Church does not acknowledge the exclusively civil marriage of Catholics (that is, contracted only in the presence of a civil magistrate) as true marriage. It is considered public concubinage.
111. Marriage Impediments
Marriage impediments are certain circumstances in a person that make him incapable of validly contracting a marriage.37
Some impediments correspond to natural law, while others correspond to divine or ecclesiastical law. The purpose of marriage impediments is the protection of the sanctity of marriage.
We will briefly describe the impediments listed by the present Code, ordering them according to the aspect of marriage they protect.
Those protecting the freedom or due deliberation of the consent are the following:
· Insufficient age. Men must be over 16 years and women over 14; the bishops’ conference may set a higher limit.38
· Abduction. A man cannot contract a marriage with a woman who has been abducted, or retained with a view to marry her, for as long as this situation lasts.39
The impediments protecting the fulfillment of the marriage contract are:
· Impotency: the impossibility to perform the marital act, when it is antecedent and perpetual,40
· Existing bond: when a previous marriage has been contracted, for as long as the other spouse is alive,41
· Holy Orders,42
· Religious profession: when a public and perpetual vow of chastity has been made in a religious institute.43
The impediments of relationship protect the intimate relations of the members of the same family so that they do not go beyond their proper limits:
· Consanguinity: natural relationship in the direct line, and up to the fourth degree inclusive in the collateral line (that is, four steps or less between those related through a common ancestor)44
· Affinity: the relationship between one spouse and the relatives by consanguinity of the other in the direct line45
· Public propriety: a sort of quasi-affinity between the parties to an invalid marriage or to a public or notorious concubinage, and those related to them by consanguinity in the direct line and in the first degree46
· Legal relationship: relationship by reason of adoption in the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line47
Finally, impediments protecting, respectively, the faith of the Catholic spouse and the children and conjugal fidelity are the following:
· Disparity of cult: when one party is baptized while the other is not48
· Crime: adultery with murder of the innocent spouse by either of the adulterers, or complicity in the murder of the spouse even if there is no adultery49
112. Dispensations from Impediments
Some impediments cease by themselves, like insufficient age. Others may cease by dispensation, which is the relaxation of the law that would have made that marriage invalid, granted by the legitimate authority in a specific case.
Dispensations can be granted by the diocesan bishop, except in the cases reserved to the Holy See. The Holy See alone has authority over the impediments of Holy Orders, public vows of chastity in a religious institute, and crime.50 In some urgent cases, and within certain conditions, the parish priest or the confessor also can grant the dispensation.51
Among the causes that justify a dispensation are, difficulty in finding another spouse, the advisability of regularizing a de facto situation, the danger of contracting civil marriage if it is denied, etc. However, not all impediments can be dispensed. In fact, some are never dispensed.
113. Validation of an Invalid Marriage
If a marriage is found to not have been validly contracted, several solutions are possible:
· The spouses can be left in their good faith when one foresees that, if they were to know their real situation, they would not be willing to validate it, but would persist in it to their own harm and that of their children.
· They can live together as brother and sister if the nullity is not public and there are grounds to hope that they will be able to do it.
· The spouses can separate. This is the only possibility when the impediment cannot be dispensed and they are not able to live as brother and sister.
· The marriage can be validated.
Generally speaking, the validation consists in doing what was omitted when the marriage was contracted.
· If the marriage is invalid because the proper form was not followed (defect of form), it should be repeated in the proper way in the presence of the parish priest and two witnesses.
· If a former impediment has ceased (e.g., the proper age has been reached), the consent should be manifested again in the proper way.
· If the impediment still exists, they must ask for a dispensation and renew their consent.
· If what was missing is precisely the consent, they should give it.52
When a marriage is found to be null, but there was true consent or it was given later and the spouses persist in their consent, the ecclesiastical authority may grant a retroactive validation called radical sanation (sanatio in radice).
This validation can be granted only by the Holy See or, in some specific cases, by the diocesan bishop. It includes the dispensation from an impediment, the dispensation from the law requiring a renewed consent, and a retroactive effectivity of the marriage from the moment it was first celebrated.
The radical sanation can be granted even if one or both spouses are unaware of it.55
Footnotes:
1. CIC, 1055; cf. CCC, 1617.
2. Cf. St. Augustine, De Bono Coniugali, 24 (PL 40. 394); De Nupt. et Concup. 1.7 (PL 44. 424); St. Leo I, Ep. 92 ad Rusticum, 4 (PL 54. 1204). “In marriage, let the goods of marriage be loved: offspring, fidelity, and the sacrament.” In these few words, St. Augustine crystallized the teaching of faith on the purposes of matrimony.
3. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 78.
4. Cf. Leo XIII, Enc. Arcanum: DS 3146.
5. Benedict XIV, Const. Paucis, Mar. 19, 1758.
6. Cf. ST, Suppl., q. 42, a. 1, ad 1; q. 45, a. 5; CCC, 1623.
7. Cf. DS 1813–1814.
8. Cf. CIC, 1134; CCC, 1638.
9. Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 13; CCC, 1643.
10. Pius XI, Enc. Casti Connubii: DS 3714.
11. Cf. DS 1810; PO, 16; CCC, 1618–1620.
12. Cf. PO, 16.
13. LG, 11; cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 21; CCC, 1655–1658.
14. Cf. DS 1812.
15. Leo XIII, Enc. Arcanum: DS 3145–46.
16. CIC, 1671.
17. Cf. Ibid., 1125.
18. Cf. Ibid., 1059, 1672.
19. Specifically, their declaration and establishment is the exclusive competence of the pope: cf. Ibid., 1075.
20. Cf. Ibid., 1086.
21. Although some authors hold that the baptized party receives a true sacrament, the opposite opinion is more common and agrees with the praxis of the Roman Curia.
22. Cf. Ibid., 1062.
23. Cf. Ibid., 1066–1070.
24. Cf. Ibid., 1063–1064; CCC, 1632. See also the commentary on these canons in the University of Navarre edition: Código de Derecho Canónico (Pamplona, Spain: EUNSA, 1983). Two aspects are pointed out: first, the advisability of attending the preparatory courses that the competent authority may organize for couples wanting to get married; second, the need to prevent the nonattendance of these courses from becoming a de facto or de jure—a new impediment for marriage.
25. Cf. CIC, 1066.
26. Cf. Ibid., 1057.
27. Ibid., 1057; cf. CCC, 1625–1632.
28. Cf. CIC, 1095–1107.
29. Cf. Ibid., 1102.
30. Cf. Ibid., 1096.
31. Cf. Ibid., 1099.
32. Cf. Ibid., 1101.
33. Cf. Ibid., 1097–1098.
34. Cf. Ibid., 1103.
35. Cf. Ibid., 1108–1112; CCC, 1630–1631.
36. Cf. CIC, 1116.
37. The 1917 Code, following a well-established tradition, distinguished between diriment impediments—the ones here defined—and impediment, or hindering impediments, which make the marriage illegal but not void. The latter have disappeared in the present Code, which still uses the term diriment impediments. Here, we call them simply “impediments,” since there is no longer any danger of confusion. The new Code has also slightly changed the diriment impediments.
38. Cf. Ibid., 1083.
39. Cf. Ibid., 1089.
40. Cf. Ibid., 1084.
41. Cf. Ibid., 1085.
42. Cf. Ibid., 1087.
43. Cf. Ibid., 1088.
44. Cf. Ibid., 1091.
45. Cf. Ibid., 1092.
46. Cf. Ibid., 1093.
47. Cf. Ibid., 1094.
48. Cf. Ibid., 1086.
49. Cf. Ibid., 1090.
50. Cf. Ibid., 1078.
51. Cf. Ibid., 1079–1080.
52. Cf. Ibid., 1156–1160.
55. Cf. Ibid., 1161–1165.
The married state is so important that Christ raised the marriage between Catholics to the level of a sacrament: “The marriage covenant … has, between the baptized, been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament. Consequently, a valid marriage contract cannot exist between baptized persons without its being by that very fact a sacrament.”1
In Sacred Scripture, a text from St. Paul clearly shows this sacramental nature: “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church.… Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church.… ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.’ This is a great mystery [sacrament], and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church” (Eph 5:22–23, 25, 31–32).
It is not the use of the term sacrament (mysterion in the original Greek, sacramentum in the Vulgate) that makes this text relevant, since that term did not acquire its present meaning until a much later period. What really matters are the essential properties brought to light:
· Marriage between Catholics is the sign of a sacred reality: the union of Christ with the Church.
· It is a sensible sign, since the marriage contract must be manifested externally.
· It causes grace, since it is a “great mystery … in reference to Christ and the Church.” There is nothing particularly mysterious in natural marriage, so the above “mystery” seems to refer to the sacramental effect as supernatural cause of grace.
Notably important among the testimonies of the Fathers of the Church are two texts from St. Augustine and one text from St. Leo the Great.2
The Eastern churches, which broke away from Rome many centuries ago, also hold that marriage is a sacrament. This implies that the belief was widespread in the early Church, since, after their separation from Rome, these churches have not accepted any of the changes introduced in the West.
The tenderness of our Lord is truly infinite. See how gently he treats his sons. He has made marriage a holy bond, the image of the union of Christ and his Church (cf. Eph 5:32), a great sacrament on which is based the Christian family that has to be, with God’s grace, a place of peace and harmony, a school of sanctity.3
100. Institution of the Sacrament of Marriage
Christian marriage is an effective sign or sacrament of Christ’s Covenant with his Church. The motive for conjugal fidelity is God’s fidelity to his Covenant with mankind, and Christ’s fidelity to his Church.
As a sacrament, marriage was instituted by Christ. The moment of its institution is not known. Authors suggest it was either the wedding at Cana (cf. Jn 2:1–11), the abolition of the repudiation law (cf. Mt 19:6), or some unspecified time between the Resurrection and the Ascension of the Lord.
101. The Matter and Form of Marriage
The matter and form of sacramental marriage are the very same matter and form of the natural and legitimate marriage contract.
The sacrament exists the very moment the natural contract is established between baptized persons by virtue of that same contract. No other condition is required. This means that the natural contract is a sacrament, that is, it produces both sanctifying grace and sacramental grace when established between Catholics.4
Regarding the contract in itself, we can affirm the following:
· The remote matter of the contract is the persons who get married or, according to other authors, the right over their bodies for procreation.
· The proximate matter is the signs or words by which the giving of the body, or the marital right, is manifested.
· The form is the mutual acceptance of this surrender, manifested externally.
Pope Benedict XIV affirms, “The legitimate contract is both the matter and the form of the sacrament of marriage, to wit: the mutual and legitimate surrender of the bodies, manifested in words and signs that show their internal attitude, is the matter; and the mutual and legitimate acceptance of the bodies is the form.”5
102. Minister of Marriage
The ministers of marriage are the spouses themselves. The blessing of the priest is merely a sacramental.6
The presence of the priest has been necessary only since the Council of Trent. This requirement was established, together with the marriage banns, in order to curb secret or clandestine marriages. While these were true and valid marriages, they often caused great disorder.7
The local bishop, parish priest, or his legitimate delegate attends the marriage as an active and qualified witness. He asks the contracting parties to manifest externally their consent, and he receives that manifestation in the name of the Church. His presence is required by ecclesiastical law for the validity of the act, just as civil law requires the presence of a public official or notary public for the validity of some juridical acts. In a case of real need, however, it can be dispensed with.
103. Subject of Marriage
The legitimate subject of marriage is any baptized person who is not prevented by law. Impediments will be considered in the following sections.
For the lawful reception of the sacrament, one must have sanctifying grace, because marriage is a sacrament of the living—it is not meant to confer the first grace. Receiving it in mortal sin (aside from the sacrilege committed) impedes the supernatural effects of the sacrament. However, these can be revived when the subject recovers God’s grace.
104. Effects of Marriage
As a natural institution, marriage generates a perpetual and exclusive bond, and it has the blessings, demands, and characteristics that were studied in the preceding chapter.
Moreover, in a Christian marriage, the spouses are strengthened and become, as it were, “consecrated” by a particular sacrament for the duties and dignity of their state.8 The Sacrament of Marriage has the same natural effects and normal characteristics of every natural conjugal love, but it adds a new significance that both purifies and strengthens the natural union, and elevates it to the extent of making it the expression of specifically Christian virtues.9
104a) The Supernatural Effects of the Sacrament of Matrimony
The supernatural effects of the Sacrament of Marriage are as follows:
· An increase of sanctifying grace
· Sacramental grace
· The right to receive in the future all actual graces that are needed to duly fulfill the ends of marriage
This sacrament increases for the spouses the permanent source of their supernatural life, sanctifying grace; and it gives them special additional gifts, good inspirations, and seeds of grace, at the same time augmenting and perfecting their natural faculties. Thus husband and wife can have more than an abstract appreciation of all that pertains to the goals and duties of their married state; they can have an internal realization, a firm conviction, an efficacious will, and an actual accomplishment of it. Finally, this sacrament gives them the right to ask for and receive the help of actual grace as often as they need it to fulfill the duties of their state.10
105. Apostolic Celibacy
Christ is the center of all Christian life. Union with him is superior to all other family or social bonds (cf. Lk 14:26; Mk 10:28–31). From the beginning of the Church, there have been men and women who have foregone the good of marriage to be closer to Jesus (cf. Rv 14:4; 1 Cor 7:32). The act of contracting marriage is a sacrament, while deciding to live celibately for apostolic reasons is not. However, apostolic celibacy is a more excellent state than marriage. This has always been the teaching of the Church, repeated more insistently since the Protestants challenged it.11
Celibates can unite themselves to Christ with an undivided heart. They can give themselves more freely, in him and for him, to the service of God and mankind. Nothing hinders their service of his Kingdom and the work of spiritual regeneration.12 The Second Vatican Council applies these reasons to sacerdotal celibacy, but they have a wider meaning and perfectly apply to apostolic celibacy.
This applies only to the situation considered in itself. It is obvious that, in individual cases, married people can be holier than celibates. These two realities—the Sacrament of Matrimony and apostolic celibacy—come from the Lord. He gives them meaning and grants the necessary grace to live in either state according to his will (cf. Mt 19:3–12). Further, for each person, the most perfect path is always what God asks of him.
106. The Domestic Church
Christ wanted to be born into the Holy Family of Joseph and Mary. Actually, the Church is “God’s family.” From the beginning, the nucleus of the Church was generally constituted of those who became believers with their entire household (cf. Acts 18:8).
In our day, in a world that is frequently hostile to the faith, a family of believers is like a hearth radiating living faith. The Second Vatican Council called the family “the domestic Church”--Ecclesia domestica.13
Matrimony is a divine vocation that God gives to many. Married couples are to sanctify themselves in this vocation and to sanctify other souls through it. Thus:
· The home is where the spouses and children must sanctify themselves through the fulfillment of all their daily duties.
· Marital and family life should be a school of Christian life for the children, a center of apostolic activity with the other members of one’s own family and with relatives, friends, and acquaintances.
107. Jurisdiction over Marriage
The sacramental nature of Catholic marriage has some juridical consequences. As was already mentioned, because of its sacramental nature, only the Church has the power to judge and determine all that refers to the essence of Christian marriage.
This is so because in marriage between baptized persons, the marriage contract and the sacrament cannot be separated: Where there is true marriage, there is also a sacrament. Only the Church has jurisdiction over the sacraments.
This exclusive ecclesiastical jurisdiction was clearly defined by the Council of Trent against the Protestant errors.14 When they denied the sacramental nature of marriage, they also denied the jurisdiction of the Church. The words of Leo XIII are also relevant in this regard:
And let no one be misled by that distinction so highly vaunted by the supporters of the civil power who separate the nuptial contract from the sacrament, with the intention of committing the contract to the power and judgment of the civil authority, reserving to the Church the sacramental aspects. As a matter of fact, such a distinction—more truthfully a sundering—cannot be approved of, since it is certain that in Christian marriage the contract cannot be separated from the sacrament. And therefore it is impossible for the contract to be genuine and lawful, unless it is at the same time a sacrament. For Christ the Lord enhanced matrimony with the dignity of a sacrament. But matrimony is the actual contract, provided it is made according to law. A further consideration is that as a consequence matrimony is a sacrament because it is a sacred sign and produces grace, and reflects the mystical marriage of Christ with the Church. The image and likeness of this marriage are found in the bond of the perfect union that joins together a man and a woman, and this is nothing more than matrimony itself. Thus it is evident that among Christians every marriage is by its very nature and essence a sacrament. And nothing is more repugnant to the truth than to say that the sacrament is a kind of embellishment of the contract, or a property extrinsic to and flowing from it, and that the sacrament can be distinguished and separated from the contract by the will of man.15
The same doctrine is affirmed in the present Code of Canon Law: “Matrimonial cases of the baptized belong by right to the ecclesiastical judge.”16 The establishment and dispensation of impediments also belongs to the ecclesiastical authority.17
Civil authority has jurisdiction over the merely civil effects of the canonical marriage of Catholics, and only over these civil effects.18
This is logical, since the purpose of civil authority is the temporal welfare of the citizens. Some of these civil effects are the union or separation of property or the inheritance rights of spouses and children.
107a) Declaration of Nullity of a Marriage
The Church does not have the power to dissolve a valid, sacramental marriage that has been consummated. Thus, the word annulment is incorrect. The Church may only declare a marriage null and void upon investigation and evidence that the marriage did not exist from the very beginning because of some defect in the consent, deficiency in the form, or the existence of an impediment.
When a case of declaration of nullity is filed in a Church marriage court, both partners must consider their marriage valid until the contrary is declared. Only after the marriage is declared invalid are the parties free to marry again. This is not the granting a divorce, but of simply declaring the nullity, or nonexistence, of a previously presumed marriage.
A married couple may undergo disagreements and even serious quarrels. We could say that there had been a failure in that marriage. This should not be made equivalent to the non-existence of a valid marriage. A matrimonial separation (see above, number 96c) could be advisable in many of those cases.
107b) Mixed Marriages
A mixed marriage is one between a Catholic and a non-Catholic baptized person. In mixed marriages, the power of the Church indirectly extends to the non-Catholic spouse. The ecclesiastical laws apply to the Catholic party and, since marriage cannot have different effects for each of the spouses, they must apply equally to the other person.
To lawfully engage in a mixed marriage, a Catholic needs permission from the competent ecclesiastical authority. The permission is not granted unless the following conditions are met:
· The Catholic partner must declare that he or she will always remove any danger to the faith and promise that the children will be educated in the Catholic religion.
· The other partner is to be informed of these promises and obligations of the Catholic partner.
· Both partners are to be instructed about the purposes and essential properties of marriage, which cannot be excluded by either of them.19
107c) Disparity of Cults
There is disparity of cults in a marriage between a Catholic and a non-Christian. When a Catholic marries a non-Christian, neither of the parties receives the sacrament.
Obviously, the non-Christian (i.e., an unbaptized person) cannot receive it, since Baptism is the gate of all sacraments. The baptized spouse does not receive it either, since marriage has the general characteristic of causing the same effects on both parties. Further, the contracting parties are the ministers of marriage, and an unbaptized person cannot administer a sacrament to a baptized one.20
The marriage of a Catholic to an unbaptized person needs a dispensation in order to be valid. The dispensation is not granted unless the conditions mentioned above are fulfilled.21
107d) Marriage between Non-Christians
A marriage between non-Christians is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Church. However, it is subject to the just laws and impediments established by civil authority.
This does not mean that the Church’s teaching on marriage applies only to Catholics. We already said that what the Church declares belongs to natural law, and applies to all human beings: to non-Christians, because they are human beings, and to Catholics, because they are human beings as well as Catholics.
108. Preparation for Marriage
The betrothal is a bilateral or unilateral promise of marriage. It was very important in the past, but its importance to the Church has practically disappeared. At present, it is regulated only by particular laws that the episcopal conference may issue.22
Before the celebration of marriage, the absence of any impediment that prevents it must be established. This investigation is concluded by the publication of marriage banns.23
The candidates must be instructed about the obligations of spouses. Since one of these obligations is the education of their children in the faith, the pastor should, during this instruction, verify that they sufficiently know the fundamental truths of the faith. However, a couple’s refusal to undergo instruction is not a sufficient reason to deny them the sacrament.24
Catholics who have not received the Sacrament of Confirmation should receive it before marriage if no great inconvenience is involved. Since one should receive the Sacrament of Marriage in the state of grace, it is likewise recommended that they receive the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist beforehand as well.25
109. The Matrimonial Consent
Marriage is brought into being by the lawfully manifested consent of legally capable persons. Therefore, no human authority can make up for this consent.26
“Matrimonial consent is an act of the will by which a man and a woman by an irrevocable covenant mutually give and accept one another for the purpose of establishing a marriage.”27
Matrimonial consent must be true, free, and deliberate; actual (to get married here and now); mutual and simultaneous; externally and lawfully manifested (according to the requirements of ecclesiastical law); and unconditional.28
Regarding the validity of the consent, a conditional consent may make the marriage null. It is certainly null if the condition concerns the future, or if it goes against the essence of marriage and is expressly placed.29
The marriage would also be void if there is ignorance or substantial error about the essence of marriage,30 but not if the error is about its unity, indissolubility, or sacramental nature (provided the consent did not depend on that error).31 A marriage would be void also if one of the parties internally and positively excludes marriage itself or one of its essential properties or elements.32
Consent is null if there is a mistake about the identity of one of the parties (this is rare but possible), but not if the error is about a quality of the person, unless this quality was directly and principally intended. If the consent of one party is secured by deceit about an important quality of the other, the marriage is invalid.33
Grave fear imposed externally that makes marriage the only option invalidates the contract.34
110. The Form of the Celebration of Marriage
The presence of the minister of the Church (and the witnesses) visibly expresses that Matrimony is an ecclesial reality. Thus, the Church usually demands the ecclesiastical form for the celebration of marriage. The marriage of Catholics is valid only when contracted in the presence of the local bishop or parish priest (or of a priest delegated by either of them) and two other witnesses. This is so by an express disposition of the Church, which has the power over this matter. It was originally issued by the Council of Trent, and slight modifications have been introduced since then.
If delegation is granted, it must be expressly given to a specific person. A general delegation must be given in writing. A special delegation must be given only for a specific marriage. This power can be sub-delegated only in some concrete cases. A deacon is also eligible. With the authorization of the Holy See, a lay person can also be appointed if no priest or deacon is available.35
The above paragraphs describe the ordinary form of marriage. When this form is not possible, and when the parish priest or bishop is not accessible without great inconvenience, the extraordinary form is lawful and valid. In this case, only two witnesses are needed. This could happen when there is danger of death, religious persecution, scarcity of priests that would impose a delay of more than one month, etc.36
The Church does not acknowledge the exclusively civil marriage of Catholics (that is, contracted only in the presence of a civil magistrate) as true marriage. It is considered public concubinage.
111. Marriage Impediments
Marriage impediments are certain circumstances in a person that make him incapable of validly contracting a marriage.37
Some impediments correspond to natural law, while others correspond to divine or ecclesiastical law. The purpose of marriage impediments is the protection of the sanctity of marriage.
We will briefly describe the impediments listed by the present Code, ordering them according to the aspect of marriage they protect.
Those protecting the freedom or due deliberation of the consent are the following:
· Insufficient age. Men must be over 16 years and women over 14; the bishops’ conference may set a higher limit.38
· Abduction. A man cannot contract a marriage with a woman who has been abducted, or retained with a view to marry her, for as long as this situation lasts.39
The impediments protecting the fulfillment of the marriage contract are:
· Impotency: the impossibility to perform the marital act, when it is antecedent and perpetual,40
· Existing bond: when a previous marriage has been contracted, for as long as the other spouse is alive,41
· Holy Orders,42
· Religious profession: when a public and perpetual vow of chastity has been made in a religious institute.43
The impediments of relationship protect the intimate relations of the members of the same family so that they do not go beyond their proper limits:
· Consanguinity: natural relationship in the direct line, and up to the fourth degree inclusive in the collateral line (that is, four steps or less between those related through a common ancestor)44
· Affinity: the relationship between one spouse and the relatives by consanguinity of the other in the direct line45
· Public propriety: a sort of quasi-affinity between the parties to an invalid marriage or to a public or notorious concubinage, and those related to them by consanguinity in the direct line and in the first degree46
· Legal relationship: relationship by reason of adoption in the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line47
Finally, impediments protecting, respectively, the faith of the Catholic spouse and the children and conjugal fidelity are the following:
· Disparity of cult: when one party is baptized while the other is not48
· Crime: adultery with murder of the innocent spouse by either of the adulterers, or complicity in the murder of the spouse even if there is no adultery49
112. Dispensations from Impediments
Some impediments cease by themselves, like insufficient age. Others may cease by dispensation, which is the relaxation of the law that would have made that marriage invalid, granted by the legitimate authority in a specific case.
Dispensations can be granted by the diocesan bishop, except in the cases reserved to the Holy See. The Holy See alone has authority over the impediments of Holy Orders, public vows of chastity in a religious institute, and crime.50 In some urgent cases, and within certain conditions, the parish priest or the confessor also can grant the dispensation.51
Among the causes that justify a dispensation are, difficulty in finding another spouse, the advisability of regularizing a de facto situation, the danger of contracting civil marriage if it is denied, etc. However, not all impediments can be dispensed. In fact, some are never dispensed.
113. Validation of an Invalid Marriage
If a marriage is found to not have been validly contracted, several solutions are possible:
· The spouses can be left in their good faith when one foresees that, if they were to know their real situation, they would not be willing to validate it, but would persist in it to their own harm and that of their children.
· They can live together as brother and sister if the nullity is not public and there are grounds to hope that they will be able to do it.
· The spouses can separate. This is the only possibility when the impediment cannot be dispensed and they are not able to live as brother and sister.
· The marriage can be validated.
Generally speaking, the validation consists in doing what was omitted when the marriage was contracted.
· If the marriage is invalid because the proper form was not followed (defect of form), it should be repeated in the proper way in the presence of the parish priest and two witnesses.
· If a former impediment has ceased (e.g., the proper age has been reached), the consent should be manifested again in the proper way.
· If the impediment still exists, they must ask for a dispensation and renew their consent.
· If what was missing is precisely the consent, they should give it.52
When a marriage is found to be null, but there was true consent or it was given later and the spouses persist in their consent, the ecclesiastical authority may grant a retroactive validation called radical sanation (sanatio in radice).
This validation can be granted only by the Holy See or, in some specific cases, by the diocesan bishop. It includes the dispensation from an impediment, the dispensation from the law requiring a renewed consent, and a retroactive effectivity of the marriage from the moment it was first celebrated.
The radical sanation can be granted even if one or both spouses are unaware of it.55
Footnotes:
1. CIC, 1055; cf. CCC, 1617.
2. Cf. St. Augustine, De Bono Coniugali, 24 (PL 40. 394); De Nupt. et Concup. 1.7 (PL 44. 424); St. Leo I, Ep. 92 ad Rusticum, 4 (PL 54. 1204). “In marriage, let the goods of marriage be loved: offspring, fidelity, and the sacrament.” In these few words, St. Augustine crystallized the teaching of faith on the purposes of matrimony.
3. St. Josemaría Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, 78.
4. Cf. Leo XIII, Enc. Arcanum: DS 3146.
5. Benedict XIV, Const. Paucis, Mar. 19, 1758.
6. Cf. ST, Suppl., q. 42, a. 1, ad 1; q. 45, a. 5; CCC, 1623.
7. Cf. DS 1813–1814.
8. Cf. CIC, 1134; CCC, 1638.
9. Cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 13; CCC, 1643.
10. Pius XI, Enc. Casti Connubii: DS 3714.
11. Cf. DS 1810; PO, 16; CCC, 1618–1620.
12. Cf. PO, 16.
13. LG, 11; cf. John Paul II, Ap. Ex. Familiaris Consortio, 21; CCC, 1655–1658.
14. Cf. DS 1812.
15. Leo XIII, Enc. Arcanum: DS 3145–46.
16. CIC, 1671.
17. Cf. Ibid., 1125.
18. Cf. Ibid., 1059, 1672.
19. Specifically, their declaration and establishment is the exclusive competence of the pope: cf. Ibid., 1075.
20. Cf. Ibid., 1086.
21. Although some authors hold that the baptized party receives a true sacrament, the opposite opinion is more common and agrees with the praxis of the Roman Curia.
22. Cf. Ibid., 1062.
23. Cf. Ibid., 1066–1070.
24. Cf. Ibid., 1063–1064; CCC, 1632. See also the commentary on these canons in the University of Navarre edition: Código de Derecho Canónico (Pamplona, Spain: EUNSA, 1983). Two aspects are pointed out: first, the advisability of attending the preparatory courses that the competent authority may organize for couples wanting to get married; second, the need to prevent the nonattendance of these courses from becoming a de facto or de jure—a new impediment for marriage.
25. Cf. CIC, 1066.
26. Cf. Ibid., 1057.
27. Ibid., 1057; cf. CCC, 1625–1632.
28. Cf. CIC, 1095–1107.
29. Cf. Ibid., 1102.
30. Cf. Ibid., 1096.
31. Cf. Ibid., 1099.
32. Cf. Ibid., 1101.
33. Cf. Ibid., 1097–1098.
34. Cf. Ibid., 1103.
35. Cf. Ibid., 1108–1112; CCC, 1630–1631.
36. Cf. CIC, 1116.
37. The 1917 Code, following a well-established tradition, distinguished between diriment impediments—the ones here defined—and impediment, or hindering impediments, which make the marriage illegal but not void. The latter have disappeared in the present Code, which still uses the term diriment impediments. Here, we call them simply “impediments,” since there is no longer any danger of confusion. The new Code has also slightly changed the diriment impediments.
38. Cf. Ibid., 1083.
39. Cf. Ibid., 1089.
40. Cf. Ibid., 1084.
41. Cf. Ibid., 1085.
42. Cf. Ibid., 1087.
43. Cf. Ibid., 1088.
44. Cf. Ibid., 1091.
45. Cf. Ibid., 1092.
46. Cf. Ibid., 1093.
47. Cf. Ibid., 1094.
48. Cf. Ibid., 1086.
49. Cf. Ibid., 1090.
50. Cf. Ibid., 1078.
51. Cf. Ibid., 1079–1080.
52. Cf. Ibid., 1156–1160.
55. Cf. Ibid., 1161–1165.